Heraldrick

Potionomics executed every idea it had to perfection. The moment to moment gameplay in making high quality potions versus bartering their value up is addictively good. The character interactions and overall writing is high quality, makes you feel like you are talking to complete and fun people, all while backed by a progressive underpinning which I cannot get enough of. The visuals are the absolute best use of cg-animation I have ever and may ever see with characters being unbelievably expressive in what is a clear labour of love. With the music having entered some of my playlists for reading and relaxing in my down time. I fully recommend this title to people who are even ambivilant towards the genres present in this title.

When I think back on my experience with SMT 4 I tend to think of the orgasmically good combat and a few standout moments of the story in a setting I never clicked with. The Press-Turn system alongside the "Smirk" mechanic is a fantastic foundation for any game to build off of. SMT 4 goes above and beyond that though, this is the game that made it so when I get absolutely destroyed an enemy in a turn-based game I just go "ah, feels like home." Because I know that I will soon go from being the one getting abused to turning that enemy/boss into a wimp screaming for mercy when they hear MY boss music after some prep. This game is worthy of many dozens of hours of play if only to experience this combat and go from being a boss's b"tch to making the boss your b"tch. Where I think this game falls short is in the traversal and branching story. I generally prefer character-driven stories with settings among the more fantastical rather than apocalyptic. Unfortunately, this game embodies some of the reasons why. Traversing the overworld was a nightmare, just to find my way to the next story beat I often had to pull up a fan-made map on my computer screen and trace the needed route with my finger because everything looks the same in the apocalypse. And while this game is more character-heavy than other SMT titles it doesn't really center much of the conflict around them, they are just outlets for the writers to ask broader questions from the player. Though I should note it was just good enough with the combat so amazing that I played it all the way to the end. Some advice for those thrillseeking through this title: Learn to buff Love to fuse Walter will not "end it thus"

The best way to describe Gorn's appeal is some mix between "Primal" and "Visceral." Thanks to this game's in-depth physics system, wide range of weapons, and gory yet cartoony graphics you can create your own Mortal Kombat executions. While the devs turn the pressure up sending more and more enemies at you there is just a primal aspect of your brain that activates and turns you into an insatiable killing machine chopping through countless nameless faces tearing them limb from limb and coming out feeling the urge to shout just like one your ancestors made after a hard-fought battle. The only complaints I have with it are some things common to VR titles currently. They just sort of drop you off in arenas with weapons and then throw waves of enemies at you before a novel boss. There isn't really a story, no characters, and no systems to engage in other than the combat. But it is still a fantastic product and was a joy for the 11 hours I played and the hours I will probably continue to play when I wanna chop someone up.

One of the most standout experiences I have had with VR or rhythm games. I am notoriously terrible at rhythm games or even finding the beat/rhythm of a song but since this title does such a good job visualizing everything I have no problems following along. On top of that, I have become more ambidextrous than at any other point in my life because the more your practice this game the better you get at moving your arms asynchronously. Lastly, this has been an absolute joy to show off to others for some of their first VR experiences. The way people light up and try to process what is going on is uniquely amazing in this title, not a lot in gaming gives me the social joy that this title does. The only reason I do not describe the contents of this title as a game in this review is because the things I enjoy most about it don't line up with what I traditionally enjoy out of games. This to me fits in with something like a fitness or carnival experience rather than a piece of art meant to elicit some form of emotion. Though if you have a VR headset in any form, I will argue this is a must-have title and likely will be for decades to come.

A wonderful story with a perfectly refined atmosphere. Note that when you buy this game the enjoyment isn't going to be mainly from the coffee making. It is going to be from following the lives of such an interesting cast with such thoroughly enjoyable dialogue. The only complaint I have is that I have spent a lot more money on coffee from local cafes & milk tea since I played since the game made it seem so appealing, and it has improved my life quite a bit.

Battleborn was a fantastically written title and the only FPS MOBA that existed (while holding any sort of relevance in the genre.) It had spectacularly funny writing that kept matches and campaign missions fresh with each character. Every character was distinct not only in visual design and gameplay but personality with even the two COD Parody characters being some of the most charming in the cast. If you get the opportunity to try this game somehow in the future I would say it is worth a shot if only for the voicelines. They also have characters for those not accustomed to FPS shooting like the mage Orendi. It is sad that this game is dead now and a large part of that death was its direct competition to Overwatch. Mind you I bought the game mainly because I tried OW and despised the experience, but this was made up of everything I was missing from OW. It had a singleplayer campaign with a decent story attached to it. The characters were actual characters and not just generic archetypes that are better described as placeholders than anything else. The multiplayer was designed to be a MOBA which is a nice mix of PVP & PVE (rather than the PVP arena/hero shooters of the time) with the devs taking into consideration how to change around the map design to suit an FPS game. It was just what I was looking for but it didn't pick up the playerbase and had some really bad marketing (I didn't even realize it was a MOBA until it was out and I watched gameplay).

Neon White is a masterpiece. It expertly paces itself between the dopamine rush it grants from completing a level with better and better times, to easing up and exploring each level looking for the collectible hidden within, before finally letting you cool off by chatting with the cast of goofy and fun characters. It is a thoroughly enjoyable experience that caused me to range from having a small smile creep into my focused expression to a big goofy smile with genuine laughter at the dialogue and characters. To heap more praise onto this title it is highly accessible to those not the best with FPS titles, has amazing music, and perfect visual clarity. I am terrible at aiming due to my lack of experience with FPS titles but I was able to land the shots I needed to while speeding through the level to get the "Ace" timing on all of them (I also never got frustrated with the level where I hate most games that score your performance/speed or puts them on a leaderboard.) Part of this was just due to it being crystal clear what you need to shoot at, what you need to ground pound/dash through, and what one needs to avoid. Lastly, I would be doing the title a disservice if I didn't compliment the sounds of the title whether it be the music that perfectly matches the atmosphere of each level and never gets tiring or repetitive, or how the voice cast that did a perfect job of bringing the script to life. Neon White is my 2022 title of the year for what I will argue are good reasons and I give it a hearty recommendation to anyone where even just 1 aspect of the title piques your interest.

Orcs Must Die! 3 is certainly better than Orcs Must Die! 2, but I don't think it does as great a job at what the series excelled at in Orcs Must Die! 1. It is still a great entry into the tower defense genre but it leans a bit heavy on the 3rd person shooter aspect to the detriment of the trap selection. For some context: Orcs Must Die! 1 put most of the power into the traps, the protagonist was only powerful enough to stop the earlier waves of Orcs until you got the immense satisfaction of setting up a conveyer-belt of Orc-corpse-making traps ("Kill Boxes"). Those traps ranged from just slowing them down as a mace crushed them, to flinging them off into some lava, to consumables to turn your hands into the traps. Orcs Must Die! 2 disempowered the traps and outside of a few exceptions made it so the best way to deal with every Orc was to just stab/shoot/burn it to death while the devs constantly send out enemies that are designed to destroy those kill-boxes (Sappers). Which is what makes it the worst entry. Orcs Must Die 3 added some power back into the traps and lightened up on the Sappers. But they still reduced the trap diversity in effect. Yeah, now you can deal shock/burn/bleed/chem damage but that is just 4 different ways of reducing the HP of Orcs rather than providing new or odd ways to deal with them to fit a wider variety of scenarios. It just becomes a game of "the devs nerfed the Giant Mace so now the best ceiling trap is the lasers, better spam those." And if the devs ever nerf the lasers then you move on to the next most damaging even though it doesn't do anything unique. I truly hope that if we get an Orcs Must Die! 4 we see some changes toward the traps. Make it so the physics-based traps are more powerful and have more pairs like a buffed-up Void Wall. And just let the player make some fun kill boxes without worrying about Sappers twice every round.

Easily the worst of the Orcs Must Die Trilogy. Frustrating & limiting are the best terms to describe this entry. It feels as though the developers took a look at the first game and decided it was too easy/fun. So they nerfed all the traps, all the weapons, the money generation, and the things that made the game fun aside from some dialogue. Then the new additions they added were also incredibly weak and not really worth using unless you are messing around. All the while it felt like the devs decided they wanted to absolutely screw over any "kill-boxes" you wanted to make (the fun part about the first game and how anyone succeeds) and just loaded every level up with Sappers to destroy them. I will never play this entry again unless I install mods to change the traps back to be more in line with the first title and make barricades indestructible. I don't quite regret 5-skulling every level, but I certainly didn't enjoy it.

Orcs Must Die! 1 is the peak of the series for me. There is a wonderful "crunch" that comes from the traps slaying the orcs in larger and larger quantities. You feel the "crunch" with the power you hold as an individual agent and can burn/zap/pierce the skulls of orcs. You also feel that "crunch" with every gold coin/dollar earned for each Orc killed. This game can be tough as nails to get 5 skulls on but it feels rewarding while you make those attempts. It is also the most fun trap-wise in my opinion since there are so many more ways to effectively kill enemies than just damaging them that the following games didn't build on.

For a game with the title of "Golden", I would argue the best term to describe it would be "Rose-coloured" (to borrow terms from Hyouka). This is a game that while painfully slow to start, throughout the journey leaves you with the warmest, brightest, most nostalgic smile a game can grant. The emotion that best conveys my feelings and thoughts for this game is "Joy." This is a game whose characters, whose school trips, whose hijinks, whose music will make you feel joy despite the relatively serious subject matter that it centers the main plot around and I wouldn't have it any other way for this title. The only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is that the combat & dungeon crawling is dreadful in this title, I had to play another SMT game just to have a refresher of what good combat is like. Pro-tip, play it on high money generation, low experience gen, and then deal high damage as a player so you can spend as little time as possible in dungeons and get everything you need.

Ori and the Blind Forest is best defined by the word "Beauty". It is a game where not only are the visuals breathtaking, but the music creates a sense of majesty, the story feels so intimate and powerful it can move you to tears, all while the gameplay is so smooth that you feel truly free while traveling through the world. On the note of the gameplay alone, the "Bash" mechanic is singlehandedly one of the most innovative and great tools a platformer could ask for. It recontextualizes combat from the enemies acting as obstacles to enemies becoming bridges and helping hands to travel around. The game was also bold in its execution of replacing boss fights with escape sequences (AKA the best parts of Metroid). The only critique I have for the game is that despite the main themes being forgiveness and compassion even to creatures that do a lot of harm, there is no way to beat the game without "killing" a lot of enemies which are described as brainwashed by the setting.